Fox Sports San Diego to launch in March

The secret is out: The new Fox Sports San Diego will launch around the first week of March.

There is no official confirmation of this, but on Feb. 3 Cox Communications published a "notice" in the U-T San Diego classifieds, announcing some upcoming channel changes "on or about March 5, 2012."

Among the changes was this: Fox Sports San Diego will launch on Channel 56 in analog format. Fox Sports San Diego HD will launch on channel 1056.

A Fox Sports Net spokesman declined to comment on the launch date or whether the network will be immediately available on Time Warner Cable, DirecTV, Dish Network or AT&T U-Verse. The company is seeking wide distribution of its new network, which will televise Padres games pending Major League Baseball approval of a contract with the club.

It isn't known when local programming will begin on Fox Sports San Diego. The first Padres spring training telecast is tentatively scheduled for March 17.

Non-Padres programming before and after that date is expected to be a combination of national FSN telecasts as well as games now seen on Fox Sports Prime Ticket involving the Los Angeles Clippers, Anaheim Ducks and various colleges including UCLA and USC.